Growth and survival of budded Kinnow plants as influenced by different types of black polybags and soil media

The experiment was carried out to standardize the black polybags with different soil media for production of budded Kinnow plants with treatments comprising four different sizes of black polybags and different soil media containing soil, sand, vermicompost and farm yard manure (FYM) in different proportions. The interaction effect of different potting material and propagation media showed that potting material viz. black polybags of size 22x10x8 cm with holes filled with propagation media soil: sand: vermicompost in the ratio of 1:1:1 reported maximum diameter of scion (0.89 cm), diameter of stock (2.76 cm), scion stock ratio (0.32), length of shoot (20.00 cm), number of shoot (11.81), number of leaves per scion (12.50) and height of plant (44.96 cm); whereas, soil temperature, electrical conductivity and soil texture were also observed highest. The cost of raising 10000 kinnow buddlings in black polybags of size 22x10x8 cm with holes filled with propagation media soil: sand: vermicompost in ratio of 1: 1: 1 was estimated as Rs 54321.00.


INTRODUCTION
Kinnow mandarin (Citrus reticulata Blanco), member of family Rutaceae, is one of the popular fruit among various citrus species.Among various citrus species, it has greater heat tolerance than other citrus species; a character inherited from its parent cultivar king tangor which allows it to survive in hot summers with maximum temperatures around 48°C.The fruit become popular among citrus growers by virtue of its excellent desert quality, characteristic aroma, pleasing appearance in addition to the cultivar's precocious bearing habit and adaptability to adverse weather conditions.
In India, citrus is grown as field nursery.In field nurseries, the eradication of soil borne pathogens like Phytophthora once introduced becomes very difficult.To avoid this problem, the concept of containerised nursery system was adopted.Natural development of the root system remains more or less intact in polybags which ensures better growth, helps the trees resist strong winds and gives better drought protection in the initial years.The increased root length of container grown seedlings allows better performance and survival under adverse conditions than bare root (Amidon et al., 1982).Interest in producing quality planting material by application of improved and modern nursery technique has increased in recent years (Gera and Ginwal, 2002).Therefore, it has become imperative to standardize the black polybags with different soil media for raising budded Kinnow plants.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The study was carried out in the experimental farm of the Division of Fruit Science, Faculty of Agriculture, SKUAST-J Udheywalla Jammu, during the year December 2011/2012 to February 2012/2013.Udheywalla is situated in the sub-tropical zone at latitude of 32 .40°N and longitude of 74 .58°E.The altitude is 300 m above mean sea level.Annual precipitation is about 1200 mm.The winter month experiences mild to severe cold and temperature ranges from 6.5 to 21.70°C.December is the coldest month with minimum temperature and evaporation rate goes as low as 4.0°C; however the maximum, minimum temperature and evaporation rate rises from March onwards.In order to study the growth characteristics of the budded kinnow plants, the rootstock seedlings were procured.The rootstock seedlings used for the budding of kinnow plants was one and half year old having uniform vigour and of pencil thickness at the time of budding.Seedling rootstock was budded during spring season.Four different black polybags viz.C1 black polybags of size 25×13×10 cm with holes, C2 black polybags of size 22×10×8 cm with holes, C3 black polybags of size 17×7×6 cm with holes and C4 Nursery bed (Size = 1×1 m ) filled with six different propagation medias viz.M1 Soil: FYM 2:1, M2 Soil: Sand: FYM 1:1:1, M3 Soil: Sand: FYM 2:1:1, M4 Soil: Vermicompost 2:1, M5 Soil: Sand: Vermicompost 1:1:1and M6 Soil: Sand: Vermicompost 2:1:1 were used forming 24 numbers of treatments.The treatments were arranged in a Factorial Randomized Block Design with three replications and the data generated during the course of study was subjected to statistical analysis as prescribed by Panse and Sukhatme (2000).
By considering the growth of budded kinnow plants, vegetative parameters like diameter of the scion and stock of five budded kinnow plants was measured using a digital vernier caliper at 30, 60, 90, 120, 150 and 180 days after planting and was expressed in centimeters.The length from the collar region to the tip of the shoot apex was measured for five randomly selected plants in each treatment and expressed in centimetres, number of shoots per plant of five budded kinnow plants was recorded at 30, 60, 90, 120, 150 and 180 days for six months after planting.All the shoots on the bud-scions were counted and average number of shoots per plant was calculated, number of leaves of five budded kinnow plants was recorded at 30, 60, 90, 120, 150 and 180 days for six months after planting.On each plant, all the leaves irrespective of their sizes were counted and average numbers of leaves per plants were calculated.The height of the budded kinnow plants was recorded at 30, 60, 90, 120, 150 and 180 days for six months after planting.The linear growth (height) was measured from ground level to the tip of the main axis with the help of scale and expressed as an average plant height in centimeter (cm).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The maximum scion diameter (0.89 cm) was recorded at 180 days after transplanting in black polythene bag of size 22x10x8 cm with holes filled with soil: sand: vermicompost (1:1:1) in Table 1.These results are in line with the findings of Bahuguna and Pyarelal (1990) in Acacia nilotica, who reported the addition of FYM and vermicompost, recorded maximum growth of plants in the nursery.
The maximum diameter of stock (2.76 cm) in Table 2 was recorded at 180 days after transplanting in black polybags of size 22 x 10 x 8 cm with holes filled with soil: sand: vermicompost (1:1:1).It follows in Table 3 then, that the maximum scion stock ratio (0.32) was observed in treatment C 2 M 5 (black polybags of size 22 x 10 x 8 cm with holes) filled with soil: sand: vermicompost (1:1:1).These results are in consonance with Ouma (2006), who reported that increase in container volume increases plant growth parameters such as height of plants, stem diameter in rough lemon seedlings.
Maximum shoot length (20.0 cm) was recorded at 180 days after transplanting in treatment C 2 M 5 (black polybags of size 22 x 10 x 8 cm with holes filled with soil: sand: vermicompost 1:1:1) presented in Table 4.This increase in the shoot growth might be due to the conducive effect of this medium mixture on porosity, soil aeration and supplying sufficient nutrients particularly nitrogen, and micro nutrients required for good root and shoot growth (Chopde et al., 1999).Maximum number of shoots (11.81 cm) were recorded at 180 days after transplanting in treatment C 2 M 5 (black polybags of size 22x10x8 cm with holes filled with soil: sand: vermicompost 1:1:1) presented in Table 5.This may be due to the larger container volume, which led to increased development of primary shoots and their number and total length of all shoots increased (Alvarez and Caula, 1993) resulting in increased plant height and canopy size.
Maximum number of leaves per shoot (12.50) were recorded at 180 days after transplanting in treatment C 2 M 5 (black polybags of size 22x10x8 cm with holes filled with soil: sand: vermicompost 1:1:1) presented in Table 6.The increased leaves per shoot might be the result of availability of nutrients from added organic matter.These results are supported by Alvarez and Caula (1993) who found that the increase in number of leaves was due to the content of higher volume of rooting media which increased development of primary shoots and their number.
Maximum height of the plant (44.96 cm) at 180 days after transplanting in treatment C 2 M 5 (black polybags of size 22x10x8 cm with holes filled with soil: sand: vermicompost 1:1:1) is presented in Table 7.The results are in consonance with Chatterjee and Choudhuri (2007) who reported that vermicompost provides close contact between seed and media, increases steady moisture supply facilitates root respiration and encourages overall root growth.They observed that at large volumes of container, there was increased development of primary shoots and their number and total length of all shoots increased which caused increased heights of plants (Alvarez and Caula, 1993).
Perusal to the data presented in Table 8 showed that maximum soil temperature was observed (36°C) in the black polybags with holes and treatments comprising The economics for producing 10000 budded kinnow plants in black polybags of size 22 x 10 x8 cm with holes filled with soil: sand: vermicompost (1:1:1) revealed that maximum gross income (Rs.198000), net return (Rs.143679) and C: B ratio (1:2.74) was observed in black polybags of size 22x10x8 cm with holes filled with propagation media soil: sand: vermicompost (1:1:1), Table 9.
These results are in conformity with findings of Ravikumar (2007) and Pramod (2007).

Conclusion
It can be concluded that the black polybags of size 22 x 10 x 8 cm with holes filled with soil: sand: vermicompost (1:1:1) was found to be best for nursery raising of budded kinnow plants and the relative economics for producing 10000 budded kinnow plants in black polybags is calculated to be Rs.54321 for which cost of planting single kinnow plant in black polybags cost to Rs. 5.24.

Table 1 .
Interaction effect of black polybags and potting mixtures on diameter of scion (cm) at different intervals for six months on budded kinnow plants.

Table 2 .
Interaction effect of black polybags and potting mixtures on diameter of stock (cm) at different intervals for six months on budded kinnow plants.

Table 3 .
Interaction effect of black polybags and potting mixtures on scion stock ratio at different intervals for six months on budded kinnow plants.

Table 4 .
Interaction effect of black polybags and potting mixtures on length of shoot (cm) at different intervals for six months on budded kinnow plants.

Table 5 .
Interaction effect of black polybags and potting mixtures on number of shoot at different intervals for six months on budded kinnow plants.

Table 6 .
Interaction effect of black polybags, potting mixtures on number of leaves per shoot at different intervals for six months on budded kinnow plants.

Table 7 .
Interaction effect of black polybags, potting mixtures on height of plant (cm) at different intervals for six months on budded kinnow plants.

Table 8 .
Interaction effect of black polybags, potting mixtures on soil physical characteristics on budded kinnow plants after six months of planting.